From Jim Metrock: I know of no school system in the state of Alabama that honors the Channel One contract. I have never even heard of one that comes close. Channel One has never refuted this. They know their contract is being breached on a wholesale basis by school after school, not only in Alabama but across the nation. There is nothing much they can do about it.
Take a look at this bell schedule for Enterprise High School in Enterprise, Alabama.
Block Schedule Bells
2001-2002 School Year
Teacher Sign-In 7:40 AM
Channel 1 7:42-7:54
Warning Bell 7:50 (report to homeroom)
Homeroom 7:55-8:02
Block I 8:07-9:39
Break 9:39-9:46
Block II 9:51-11:23
Lunch IIIA 11:23-11:53 (1st lunch)
Block IIIA 11:58-1:30 (Class)
Block IIIB 11:28-1:00 (Class)
Lunch IIIB 1:00-1:30 (2nd lunch)
Block IV 1:35-3:07 PM
Rarely do you see a bell schedule that lists “Channel One” but when it occurs it usually shows that Channel One is being shown before the school day starts or is being shown during lunch or is given too little time for the whole program to be shown.
Channel One’s contract states that Channel One News must be shown “between the bells” and cannot be shown during lunch. The program must be shown in its entirety according to the contract schools sign, but many schools do not allow time for the program to be completely shown.
Notice that the clever administrators at Enterprise ran Channel One before the Warning Bell that signaled students should now go to their first official period of the day, Homeroom. This is sheer agony for the junk food advertisers and movie studios who paid good money to get their ads on Channel One so a captive audience would be watching in a classroom setting. Schools have found some great ways to keep the TV sets without exposing their students to Channel One’s marketing blitz.
For years, my high school in Vestavia Hills, Alabama showed Channel One before the bell for Home Room. Under pressure from Channel One, the school moved the program to the lunch period (another violation of the contract but at least it was “between the bells”). The VHHS teachers couldn’t tolerate the presence of Channel One during the school day and asked for it to be removed. Channel One was kicked out of that school in 2000.
Here’s another example of how America’s schools treat Channel One. Welcome to Hamrick Middle School in Texas. They like the TV sets and all but they aren’t too keen on having to show Channel One News to students. Or at least that is how it seems.
SCHOOL SCHEDULE
As students enter on the first day of school (August 16), they will go to the gym to pick up their schedules. They will follow this schedule even if a change will be needed sometime during the week NEW STUDENTS WHO DID NOT ATTEND ESCAMILLA INTERMEDIATE will need to report to the auditorium for scheduling purposes.
8:30 Channel One for students
8:35 All students procede to class
8:40 Announcements
3:55 Dismissal
Is Channel One a joke to educators and students in schools that are under contract to Channel One? Not to all maybe, but more and more schools and students are turning their backs to C1N. Advertisers are not “happy campers” about this.
